The present invention relates to a magnetic recorder/reproducer such as a video tape recorder (VTR), and more particularly to a magnetic recorder and reproducer capable of recording information on a track while reproducing other information recorded on the same track.
Video tape recorders (VTRs) have a rotary drum on which two recording/reproducing heads are mounted. The VTR operates by switching the heads each time the rotary drum makes half a revolution in a recording or playback mode while causing a video tape to run inclined to a plane in which the heads rotate, for enabling the heads to record information successively along tracks (known as video tracks) or read information recorded on the tracks to display it on a cathode-ray tube.
There is an instance where the user wants to record another video image (referred to as a program Y) while a video image (referred to as a program X) recorded on a video tape is being reproduced. Such a process has been effected in a conventional VTR by interrupting the playback mode, recording the program Y on another tape, and then reproducing the program X again. Where the sequence in which the programs are viewed is fixed, or the program X has to be viewed at a certain time without fail, however, the above requirement cannot be met with a single VTR, but two VTRs must be shown.
There is another instance where character information created by a computer, for example, is desired to be recorded on a reproduced video image while the video image is being monitored. However, such a requirement cannot conventionally be met with a single VTR, but two VTRs and two video tapes, at least, must be used.